Wake Forest survives, beats Kennesaw State
WINSTON-SALEM – This was about as ominous a start as Wake Forest could have had to a football season.
With it still being a win.
Wake Forest beat Kennesaw State 10-9 to start Jake Dickert’s tenure Friday night at Allegacy Stadium. This slog of a game saw Deacons star running back Demond Claiborne exit in the first half after only three carries.
Claiborne carried on the first two plays of the game. He exited to the locker room sometime in the first five or six plays and was there for most of the first quarter.
The star running back returned to the sideline before the start of the second quarter. He was in and out of the medical tent a few times and took the field for Wake’s possession that started with 10:24 before halftime.
On the first play, he had a 4-yard carry up the middle, was hit in the midsection, and gingerly jogged to the sideline.
That ended Claiborne’s night and extinguished a lot of excitement.
Wake Forest scored a touchdown on its first possession. That was a 14-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Robby Ashford flipping over while crossing the goal line on a 5-yard run.
The Owls answered with a 10-play, 75-yard drive. There were two plays of 13 yards, one for 21, and the touchdown was a 19-yard run by Coleman Bennett that saw some woeful tackling attempts. The PAT was missed, so the Deacons held a 7-6 lead.
And that was it for the touchdowns in this game.
Kennesaw State took a 9-7 lead by driving 64 yards and getting a field goal to start the second half. Wake Forest came back a couple of drives later with a field goal, set up by a 43-yard catch and run by Karate Brenson and another 11 yards tacked onto the end by a penalty.
